Research in the States

The Nation­al Genealog­i­cal Soci­ety pub­lish­es a series of books enti­tled Research in the States. Each vol­ume cov­ers the his­to­ry, laws, records and research facil­i­ties of a state. It pro­vides guid­ance for online resources as well.

For my own research, I have picked up the PDF ver­sions of the Vir­ginia and West Vir­ginia books, in PDF for­mat. As a mem­ber of the NGS, I have also down­loaded the PDF ver­sion of the lat­est issue of the NGSQ, Vol. 98, No. 1, March 2010, which includes “Research in Nebras­ka” by Rober­ta “Bob­bi” King.

I have devoured each of these books, tak­ing notes about sources, meth­ods, how records changed, and so on, in order to get the most out of my research time.

At $8 for the PDF and $14.50 for the print­ed ver­sion (mem­bers price; non-mem­bers pay $10 and $17.50), these are an incred­i­ble val­ue, allow­ing you to focus your research. High­ly rec­om­mend­ed.